There is a subtle difference between ‘waiting’ and ‘waiting for’, and in that lies the difference between ‘peaceful progress’ and ‘stressful success’.

The farmer has ploughed the soil and planted the seeds… now he must wait… Where man’s responsibility ends, existential responsibility takes over. Now if the farmer knows the art of ‘waiting’, he will wait peacefully. Instead, if he waits for the sprouting, then every passing moment will make him restless and stressed. His mind will keep rattling – “Why isn’t it happening? Why not yet?” Even if it eventually sprouts, he has already traded his peace for success. The damage is already done.

Have you pressed the button for the elevator… now wait… it will come when it comes. ‘Waiting for’ the elevator will make you pace the floor and make your eyeballs go up and down… as if that will speed up the elevator and make it reach your floor faster. Have you placed your order with the waiter… just wait… waiting for the waiter will make the wait an exasperating experience. Have you taken the decisions that are to be taken… have you performed the actions that are to be performed… have you done what can be done by you… now wait… just wait… not ‘for’ this or that or anything, but just wait… In it, you will discover the key to peaceful progress. ‘Waiting for’ also brings in success, but that success is far too stressful. When there is a peaceful path to success, why take the stressful path?

One of the most essential qualities for spiritual progress is the ability to do one’s part and just wait… Most people who cry for a spiritual experience, that eluding silence, actually suffer because of this attitudinal disease – waiting for. By ‘waiting for’ the experience, you become a witness against your own self, instead of becoming a witness to the experience. It is to that ‘waiting witness’ that the spiritual experience unfolds itself.

Give up ‘waiting for’ and you will give up stressful success. Learn to do your part and wait… that’s the path to peaceful progress.